Dear Sir,
What an amazing 18 months we have had! What originally started out as a ‘save Santa’ campaign led to a group of people forming Community Spirit Newton Aycliffe. We had a united goal and mission statement, supporting local families, helping those in need, promoting local businesses and bringing our community together. I think we can safely say we achieved our goal. We even won the Syd Howarth community award, what an honour!
We raised our funds by having regular family discos and seasonal craft fairs, all were very well attended and so much fun. The funds raised allowed us to help the community in so many ways. We donated food parcels to those in need, allowed people living on their own to enjoy a Christmas dinner, assisted some members of the community who had been the target of theft.
We were able to work with social services supplying families with white goods, furniture, pushchairs, and anything else they requested. We have helped struggling families carpet their homes, put smiles on children’s faces with toys and tricycles. We have helped the young and old alike with health issues that required financial help. All of these things we would not have achieved if it wasn’t for the hard work of all Community Spirit members who gave up their free time to help.
A big thank you goes to Professor Nincompoop who always made our discos entertaining. Thanks to Newton Press for all their help with our publicity, and to Shirley at Newton Aycliffe Tesco who has helped us enormously. Thank you to the Newton Aycliffe police for their help at Christmas time, and to Beth and Debbie’s decorations, making our grotto the best one ever. A massive thank you to Gary Hepple, Alan Nelson and all the staff at The Big Club Newton Aycliffe, had it not been for their kindness and support and their great venue our events and fundraising would not have taken place.
Current times and lockdown has meant that we have not been able to carry out our normal fundraising activities. But we have continued to help the community quietly in the background with the funds we had built up. The pandemic has had an impact on us all and unfortunately our members have to concentrate their time now on other commitments. So the time has come for us to say farewell to Community Spirit Newton Aycliffe. We were hoping to say hello to Christmas Spirit as we still continued our work in December as Mr and Mrs Claus, but at this moment in time this looks uncertain.
We would like to wish all of the Aycliffe Charities good luck as they continue to work hard to support the people of Newton Aycliffe during this difficult time. The remainder of our funds will be given to St Clare’s Food Bank at Christmas time to help those families in need. We would like to finish on a final Thank You to everyone who embraced our charitable organisation with the kindness and good will that was intended.
Stay strong, stay safe and keep up the Community Spirit.
Joanne Jones
Founder member
